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  • From: me <ken@wildlanders.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] a few more words on cattle ranching - solutions.
  • Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:39:13 -0700

Gail,

You are spot on. I worked for the US Forest Service for many years and the premittee fees are so low as to be a root cause of the problem. Ranchers are being subsidized indirectly by cheap access to forage bases on our public lands. I actually agree with those low fees as long as it does not cause environmental harm and the cattle ranchers are ethical in the numbers of cows, how they manage them, and in respect to the other uses of our public lands (recreation for one). But unfortunately, the ranchers have the mentality of "my cows come first", "I lived here before you", and otherwise a complete disrespect for the idea of PUBLIC land ownership.

I think what we will need to do is zone areas on a much larger scale. Right now we zone areas within counties or municipalities. Rather, we need to zone whole counties or regions somehow under state or even federal zoning laws. This would keep the urbanization at bay and allow the traditions and agriculture to survive.

And the survival of agriculture is important. It is a security issue as we now see in some countries that cannot feed their own people and have become too dependent upon food imports. This precept should support and drive this larger zoning effort I mention above. Unfortunately, it is too late for our area where this issue is being played out.

-Ken



Excellent comments, Ken.

The only thing I would add to what you have written is that only 3 or 4% of
the beef raised in this country graze on these arid western public lands.

It wouldn't hurt the beef supply one bit if public land grazing was stopped
tomorrow. Stopping grazing would benefit these lands owned by all
American's but terribly abused by these corporate welfare ranchers.

And lastly, you can't feed a hamster for what the government charges these
ranchers per AUM on Forest Service and BLM managed lands. State owned lands
usually charge more per AUM, a cow and a calf per month.

Gail




  • Re: [Livingontheland] a few more words on cattle ranching - solutions., me, 07/31/2008

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